Fish and Wildlife seeks sponsor for license fees increases

Hunters and fishermen may have to pay upwards of 30 percent more for some licenses next year if a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife proposal makes it through this legislative session.

The agency estimates the fee increases would provide as much as $43.5 million more in annual revenue. In Snohomish County and the Sky Valley, funds would potentially help put more salmon in the rivers, boost hunting and fishing access for youth, seniors and access to private lands, and secure more out-of-state revenue.

The age limit for license discounts for seniors would go from 70 to 65, and the age when a young fishermen would require a license would go up to 16 from 15. Coho production at the Wallace and Marblemount hatcheries would increase by up to 700,000, and more money would be put toward quality programs that help connect hunters with areas on or near private properties.

Currently, no one is willing to sponsor the bill.

If WDFW does find a sponsor, the Senate Natural Resources and Parks Committee will be the first to see the proposal. Committee chairman Sen. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, said he would allow WDFW every opportunity to be heard, but likely won’t support the plan.

“Some of those increases are very significant,” he said.

Pearson pointed to the prices for nonresidents. A license will cost more than twice as much as a resident’s license in most cases, and could potentially do harm to local tourism industries, he said.

Pearson has called for public comment statewide on the topic. So far, hundreds of responses have come in, and only a handful were favorable, he said.

Many people are also displeased with the lack of opportunity, Pearson said. There just aren’t as many fish in the rivers, and the WDFW plan doesn’t make up for what is lacking, he said.

“I think the department needs to show they are worthy of that kind of support,” Pearson said.

John Fry, who has fished on the Skykomish and Wallace rivers for 30 years, said he wouldn’t be happy about any fee hikes, but would still buy the licenses. He said over the years he has also observed fishing opportunities become fewer and far between.

“I would be completely happy to raise fees and give more opportunities for our kids to catch fish and get them into being outdoors,” Fry said, whose favorite fishing partner is his 24-year-old son, Nick.

Winter usually means steelhead season, but this year, and for about the past decade, there is not much to catch. Thirty years ago, Fry said he could bank on pulling up to eight trout out of the water every day.

Only 72 adult steelhead had returned from the open ocean, as of Jan. 12, and were collected by staff at the Wallace and Reiter Ponds hatcheries, according to the facilities’ escapement report.

“That’s terrible, terrible,” Fry said. “I don’t know the answer.”

Roughly half the adults that return are female, which produce around 2,500-4,000 eggs depending on size. Only a percentage of those eggs hatch and grow into smolt. The WDFW plan to release 239,000 smolt back into the river this year, starting April 15.

WFDW needs to collect at least 300 adults to reach the escapement goal this season.

Because of the low returns, WDFW issued a rule change — effective Dec. 30-Feb. 15 — banning the fishing of all species at two areas near the Wallace and Reiter Ponds hatcheries.

One spot spans from the railroad trestle downstream of the U.S. Highway 2 bridge, to 200 feet upstream of the Wallace hatchery water intake structure roughly five miles east of Sultan on Wallace River. The other reaches 1,000 feet downstream and 1,500 feet upstream of the Reiter Ponds outlet on the Skykomish River.

A briefing for WDFW’s new licensing system has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, before the Senate’s Natural Resources and Parks Committee.